SAM Allardyce has hailed his high-flying Wanderers as "the lesser version of Chelsea".

The Bolton boss accepts that he will never have the financial clout to assemble the wealth of talent that has helped Jose Mourinho claim successive Premiership titles.

But he believes his current crop of players are capable of switching styles to cope with any situation, against any opponents - even during the course of a match.

Nevertheless, while Chelsea are hailed as Premiership giants and title contenders, Wanderers are still having to cope with sniping from disgruntled managers who don't take kindly to having their feathers ruffled.

"It's water off a duck's back to me," Allardyce said, referring to the recent critcism of Wanderers's "over-physical" and "direct" tactics by Liverpool manager, Rafa Benitez, and Newcastle's Glenn Roeder.

"It doesn't quite affect me as it does other people. I just get on with the job of winning football matches.

"The important thing is that we know what we are, we know where we are going and we know we are adaptable.

"We are a lesser version of Chelsea. We can change our style of play, not only for every game, but with the course of a game.

"The level of information and the intake of information my players have is 100 per cent professional."

One manager who has consistently refused to criticise Wanderers is Stuart Pearce, who took his Manchester City side to the Reebok today aiming to avenge a 2-0 defeat at Eastlands three weeks ago.

Pearce, who played with Allardyce at Coventry, says Wanderers deserve to be respected not only for what they have achieved but for the way they play.

"It is just too basic to say Bolton are an aggressive side," he said. "There is a hell of a lot more to them than that."

While Allardyce has been irritated by what Roeder and Benitez had to say, it is Wanderers chairman Phil Gartside who has made the biggest noises, suggesting this week that the Football Association's compliance unit should examine the Liverpool manager's widely-quoted disparaging comments before the New Year's Day game.

For his part, the Bolton boss would prefer to just sit down and chew the fat with his fellow managers - a tradition that has waned since the foreign invasion.

"There's not too many have a drink with you any more," he said. "It's a sign of the changing times.

"We used to go into their offices, get the odd You were unlucky' and You did your best ' when we'd lost 3-1. Now we turn up and frustrate teams because we're tactically very astute, very fit, extremely well organised and probably better than most at what we do - even better than the big boys at times.

"We have a team of misfits who we have pulled together and who get results and some managers have to find excuses. So they have a go at our style of play.

"We've managed to get the better of Liverpool on a regular basis . . . but there's only one or two who go on about us nowadays and they tend to be the big boys who don't think we should be beating them.

"Glenn Roeder mentioned it again when they (Newcastle) played here because he was trying to defend himself after a defeat.

"But I produced the ProZone stats to show that we outplayed them. And you can't argue with them."

Although Allardyce is dismissive of the band of critics that has dwindled in recent recent, the publicity given to Benitez's comments riled Bolton fans and many of their players and backroom staff, including the normally mild-mannered Sammy Lee, who had hoped Wanderers had finally won over their critics.

Kevin Nolan says it is only since Wanderers became serious Champions League challengers that the sniping has started again.

"It did go away, because we had a quiet season last year and weren't really upsetting the big boys," he said. "But this year we really mean business. That's why all the nonsense has started coming out again.

"We don't worry, though. There are a lot more managers who respect us now. As for the rest, we just hope to stick the criticism down their throats."